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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
3.5 stars
This book is largely about Manon being middle-aged, still in love with but also bored by the monotony of life with her long-time partner, gaining weight, overwhelmed with being a mother, wife, and police office. I can relate to being middle-aged and overwhelmed, but otherwise a lot of the book did not resonate with me. I'm happy for police procedurals to have some focus on the personal lives of the main characters, but this one was a little too heavy on "poor pitiful me."
The human trafficking main crime story was unremarkable.
This book is largely about Manon being middle-aged, still in love with but also bored by the monotony of life with her long-time partner, gaining weight, overwhelmed with being a mother, wife, and police office. I can relate to being middle-aged and overwhelmed, but otherwise a lot of the book did not resonate with me. I'm happy for police procedurals to have some focus on the personal lives of the main characters, but this one was a little too heavy on "poor pitiful me."
The human trafficking main crime story was unremarkable.
Good read but did not enjoy the story as much as the other Manon Bradshaw noels.
It's been 4 years since the end of book 2 and DS Manon Bradshaw, her partner Mark, and sons Fly and Teddy are still in Cambridgeshire. Manon is still working cold cases, three days a week, when she literally walks upon a man hanging in a tree. And she gets put on the case. She is giddy to be back in the field on an active case. Joined up with her old partner, Davy, she starts methodically uncovering the mystery of the man hanging in a tree. The investigation uncovers the hateful underside of immigration labor and how natives feel about immigrants and stir up high emotions.
Women who are the same age as DS Manon Bradshaw in this series will really resonate with her on a personal level. Steiner writes her so funny and so real about the mid-life unraveling. Her mystery was involved and touched on the emotional and controversial topic of immigration from a couple of different angles. I really liked this story and the characters. I think this might be the last book in the DS Manon Bradshaw series and I'm disappointed, I want more! But if this was the last book, Steiner wrapped it up in a really satisfactory way.
Women who are the same age as DS Manon Bradshaw in this series will really resonate with her on a personal level. Steiner writes her so funny and so real about the mid-life unraveling. Her mystery was involved and touched on the emotional and controversial topic of immigration from a couple of different angles. I really liked this story and the characters. I think this might be the last book in the DS Manon Bradshaw series and I'm disappointed, I want more! But if this was the last book, Steiner wrapped it up in a really satisfactory way.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
With this book, the late Susie Steiner slid us back into the world of DI Manon Bradshaw, her acerbic wit, her colleagues, and her blended family. It feels weirdly familiar and comforting, even though she explores what it means to grapple with potentially fatal illness and to look at one's life partner and wonder, "Is this all there is?" (and then think, "And what would I possibly do without him?")
You could almost forget you're reading a murder mystery. Almost...until the viewpoint shifts, and you are hearing from a Lithuanian immigrant who's essentially been trafficked into slave labor in Britain, living in a house full of other slave laborers, in a town where racist anti-immigrant protesters fill the streets.
It's not that the mystery provides an excuse for a novel of social conditions. Nor does the exploitation of immigrant workers cheapen Manon's personal and familial trials or her conflicts at work. Instead, it all comes together in a gorgeous, head-spinning mess, just like life.
I wish the author had been given more life instead of dying at the age of 51. She had a rare talent for seeing people whole.
You could almost forget you're reading a murder mystery. Almost...until the viewpoint shifts, and you are hearing from a Lithuanian immigrant who's essentially been trafficked into slave labor in Britain, living in a house full of other slave laborers, in a town where racist anti-immigrant protesters fill the streets.
It's not that the mystery provides an excuse for a novel of social conditions. Nor does the exploitation of immigrant workers cheapen Manon's personal and familial trials or her conflicts at work. Instead, it all comes together in a gorgeous, head-spinning mess, just like life.
I wish the author had been given more life instead of dying at the age of 51. She had a rare talent for seeing people whole.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Trafficking
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Racial slurs, Grief, Pregnancy
Minor: Bullying, Hate crime, Slavery, Police brutality, Abortion
Third in a trilogy that ended when the author died at the age of 51
I love Manon Bradshaw. A grumpy, witty, "black-tinted" glasses police detective. I love how Susie Steiner portrayed her domestic life and the office banter. There's always a very dark crime tale behind all this, but the books feel much warmer and familiar than steely police novels. I was incredibly sad and shocked to hear of Susie Steiner's death recently; a tragic loss much too soon.
The third and last Manon Bradshaw British Police Detective novel. This one felt less satisfying to me: the focus was on trafficked and exploited Lithuanian workers, forced to do dangerous jobs as near-slaves in contemporary England. The mystery part is dragged out between chapters of Manon grousing and whinging about her personal life. She hasn't gotten MORE likeable as these books progressed, but is certainly a realistic character. (Would I have liked this better if there'd been anything approaching 'Justice' in the end? My weakness for satisfying endings on full display here.)
For some unknown reason, this book had been languishing in my to-be-read queue. I'm sorry that I waited so long to dive it, because I was hooked immediately. Manon Bradshaw is a grouchy and impulsive, but also loyal and dogged, characteristics that make her a good detective. Above all, Manon is human, and watching her deal with work, her partner, her kids, and life in general make for a compelling read. Above all, I hope that Susie Steiner recovers from her cancer!
Thanks to Random House Publishing for access to a digital ARC via NetGalley.
Thanks to Random House Publishing for access to a digital ARC via NetGalley.
This one was quite slow going. It could’ve been a bit shorter, I think. I was very interested at the beginning but then had to force myself to pick it up by the time I got half way. I didn’t particularly like any of the characters but did enjoy some of the plot.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.
Sometimes all it takes is reading about another person’s struggle to allow space for you to accept your own struggle. In the third book following Manon Bradshaw, Manon is really struggling. On the work front, she is investigating the death of an immigrant at a time when she feels like the entire country hates immigrants. At home, she is overwhelmed, exhausted, and just generally done. For me, in this book, the crime was not really of interest. It was visiting Manon, Davy, and the rest of the familiar faces again that kept my attention. I’ve been having a hard time focusing the last few weeks, so it was nice to go back to someone I felt like I knew.
4 Stars from me
There is a simple beauty within these pages - among the chaotic debris of Manon's life, and the depravity, abuse, racism, squalor and disappointment in the story - that is found within the relationship based narrative. It is so acutely observed, so raw, so natural and so accurate. A truly wonderful and unexpected delight. The way Susie Steiner has captured the relationships and emotions is quite brilliant.
DS Manon Bradshaw is a great character, she leads us unflinchingly through every aspect of this book and she shares a lot along the way.
There is an uncomfortable truth in this story as the thread of the abuse of immigrants is all too close to home. The inhumane way in which these men are treated was captured perfectly and highlights a sad truth within our society.
I really enjoyed the setting of the book too as it is reasonably local to me which I guess made me connect with the book virtually from page one - 'oooh I've walked through that park where the dead guy was hanging...'
I very much enjoyed this book although was saddened to read in the authors notes at the end of her own ill health. It made for very humbling reading and I hope that treatment is going well.
Synopsis: Newly married and navigating life with a toddler as well as her adopted adolescent son, Manon Bradshaw is happy to be working part-time in the cold cases department of the Cambridgeshire police force, a job which allows her to "potter in, coffee in hand and log on for a spot of internet shopping - precisely what she had in mind when she thought of work-life balance." But beneath the surface Manon is struggling with the day-to-day realities of what she assumed would be domestic bliss: fights about whose turn it is to clean the kitchen, the bewildering fatigue of having a young child in her forties, and the fact that she is going to couple's counseling alone because her husband feels it would just be her complaining.
But when Manon is on a walk with her two-year-old son in a peaceful suburban neighborhood and discovers the body of a Lithuanian immigrant hanging from a tree with a mysterious note attached, she knows her life is about to change. Suddenly, she is back on the job, full-force, trying to solve the suicide - or is it a murder - in what may be the most dangerous and demanding case of her life.
http://readandrated.com/2019/12/15/remain-silent-by-susie-steiner/
There is a simple beauty within these pages - among the chaotic debris of Manon's life, and the depravity, abuse, racism, squalor and disappointment in the story - that is found within the relationship based narrative. It is so acutely observed, so raw, so natural and so accurate. A truly wonderful and unexpected delight. The way Susie Steiner has captured the relationships and emotions is quite brilliant.
DS Manon Bradshaw is a great character, she leads us unflinchingly through every aspect of this book and she shares a lot along the way.
There is an uncomfortable truth in this story as the thread of the abuse of immigrants is all too close to home. The inhumane way in which these men are treated was captured perfectly and highlights a sad truth within our society.
I really enjoyed the setting of the book too as it is reasonably local to me which I guess made me connect with the book virtually from page one - 'oooh I've walked through that park where the dead guy was hanging...'
I very much enjoyed this book although was saddened to read in the authors notes at the end of her own ill health. It made for very humbling reading and I hope that treatment is going well.
Synopsis: Newly married and navigating life with a toddler as well as her adopted adolescent son, Manon Bradshaw is happy to be working part-time in the cold cases department of the Cambridgeshire police force, a job which allows her to "potter in, coffee in hand and log on for a spot of internet shopping - precisely what she had in mind when she thought of work-life balance." But beneath the surface Manon is struggling with the day-to-day realities of what she assumed would be domestic bliss: fights about whose turn it is to clean the kitchen, the bewildering fatigue of having a young child in her forties, and the fact that she is going to couple's counseling alone because her husband feels it would just be her complaining.
But when Manon is on a walk with her two-year-old son in a peaceful suburban neighborhood and discovers the body of a Lithuanian immigrant hanging from a tree with a mysterious note attached, she knows her life is about to change. Suddenly, she is back on the job, full-force, trying to solve the suicide - or is it a murder - in what may be the most dangerous and demanding case of her life.
http://readandrated.com/2019/12/15/remain-silent-by-susie-steiner/